6

SPECIAL MEETING

TO BE HELD AT

41, QUEEN’S GATE, LONDON, S.W.7

ON

WEDNESDAY, 2nd MAY, 1962 at 6.15 p.m.

A Special Meeting convened in accordance with the Bye-Laws, Chapters XXI and XXIV, will be held on Wednesday, 2nd May, 1962 to consider and vote upon a number of alterations to the Bye-Laws, which will be

moved from the Chair on behalf of the Council.

Alteration of Bye-Laws Explanatory note

matters : Material alterations to the Bye-Laws proposed by Council concern the following

1. Constitution of Council and election of Council Members (see Chapters I V and V ) . 2. Recognition of the Editor as an Honorary Officer and definition of his duties

3. Revision of the annual subscription rates and abolition of the entrance fee (see

4. Provision at the Annual Meeting for questions from Fellows (see Chapter X X I ) . Examination of the existing Bye-laws has shown that piecemeal alteration over a

long period has left them rather confused, particularly in the order in which they are arranged. Opportunity has therefore been taken to prepare a new draft of the complete Bye-Laws, of which a copy is enclosed with every copy of this agenda paper sent to an address overseas. Wherever possible the existing wording has been kept intact, though much of it is now arranged in what seems a more logical order. The entries in the column on the left refer back to the text of the existing Bye-Laws.

(see Chapters 111 and X l I ) .

Chapter X V I I ) .

PAUL FREEMAN,

Honorary Secretary.

NOTICES The next Ordinary Meeting will be held on Wednesday, 2nd May, 1962 :

Professor J. L. Cloudsley-Thompson.-Bioclimatic and desert adaptation in insects and arachnids.

Joint Meeting with the British Ecological Society The effects of habitat on insect populations in the tropics

Fellows are reminded that the above meeting will be held on Friday, 30th March, a t Imperial College. Details were circulated with the last issue of these Proceedings.

7

PROCEEDIS'GS OF THE ORDINARY MEETIK'G HELD OK ~ T H MARCH, 1962 Professor G. C. VARLEY, President, in the Chair.

Present, 62 Fellows and 11 Visitors. The minutes of the Ordinary Meeting held on 17th January, 1962, were confirmed

and signed by the President. The President announced that he had nominated Dr. J. D. Carthy, Mr. R. G. Davies

and Dr. B. R. Laurence as his Vice-presidents for the coming year. The names of the following candidates for election were read for the first time : Mr.

Gordon Locksley Angel1 ; Mr. Roy Elliott ; Mr. Derek John Foxwell ; Mr. Laurence Graham Hambelton Goodson ; Mr. Robert Blfred Hughes ; Dr. Thomas Gordon Onions ; Dr. Laurence W. Quate ; Miss Marion M. Schofield ; Mr. Karl Heinz Dieter Schroder ; Xr. Sbdul Gader Sherif ; and Mrs. Nora Isabel Watson.

For the second time (takcn as read) : Dr. Thomas Henry Barry, D.Sc. ; Mr. Peter Chieh Tang Chen : Mr. Thomas Anthony Geyer ; Dr. Mahrus Saleh Hassan, M.S. ; Dr. James Burton Kring, M.S., Ph.D. ; Mr. David Livingstone, M.Sc. : Mr. R. T. Simon Thomas, M.Sc. : and Mr. Rajendra Kumar Varshney, M.Sc.

The Secretary read the names of the following newly elected Fellows of the Society : Mr. Michael Clifford Cooper, 14, Lavender Hill, Enfield, Middlesex ; Mr. Jean Gouil-

lard, 38, rue Condorcet, Paris, 9e, France ; Mr. Mahesh Datta Jha, Dept. of Entomology, University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho, U.S.A. ; Mr. Colin Johnson, 65, Chapel Street, Dukinfield, Cheshire ; Mr. Laughton Lowe-Willetts, B.Sc., Institute of Agriculture and Horticulture, Usk, Mon. ; Squadron-Leader James Gordon McCathie, R.A.F. (Reed.), Highfields, Hill Road, Theydon Bois, Essex; Mr. Hugh Arthur Walter Southon, E.A.T.R.O., P.O. Box 96, Tororo, Uganda; Mr, Ahmad Yunus, B.Sc., B.Agr., Division of Agriculture, Federation of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur.

In accordance with the Bye-Laws, Chapter XXI, paragraph 1 and Chapter XXIV, paragraph 1, the Secretary read for the first time the notice of a Special Meeting to be held in the Society's rooms on Wednesday, 2nd May, a t 6.15 p.m., to consider and vote upon certain proposed alterations to the Bye-Laws [see p. 61.

The Secretary read a letter from Mr. Elliot Pinhey of the National Museum, Bula- wayo, in which he commented on Mr. D. G. Sevastopulo's communication (Vol. 26, p. 35) regarding the Hon. Miriam Rothschild's notes on the effect of hydrocyanic acid on Zygaenidae. Mr. Pinhey observed that other fumigants besides tetrachlorethane, such as chloroform and carbon tetrachloride, will also be rapidly effective on Zygaenids, as well as on Danaids and Acraeas. He had also found that the method of piercing the thorax of an Acraea with a pin dipped into the stem of a pipe will cause its death within a matter of seconds.

The Hon. Miriam Rothschild, on behalf of Mr. Charles Lane, exhibited a slide of captive ladybirds hibernating, which demonstrated the aggregation of the melanic variety, quadrimaculata. Out of 500 Adalia bipunctata (L.), which were caught entering the house to over-winter, 3 per cent. were quadrimaculata. When a warm spell brought the ladybirds out of hibernation, 184 were collected, of which 8 were quadrimaculata. Some evidence of aggregation in nature was also indicated, since among 65 ladybirds colIected from three rooms, no melanics were present, but 8 were collected from two other rooms where the remaining 116 bipunctata were captured. Mating in the spring, therefore, might not be completely a t random. Dr. John Parsons compared the hista- mine present in the body tissues of both varieties but found no appreciable difference. It is hoped that an attempt will be made to compare chromatograms of quadrimaculata and bipunctata, since chromatograms of this species and Coccinella 7-punctata L. show marked differences.

Mr. R. W. Paine (a visitor) gave a paper on distribution anomalies of some Pacific Island pests, with particular reference to the Banana Scab Moth (Nacoleia octasema Meyr.), an abstract of which appeared on page 1.

The discussion which followed was opened by Mr. R. J. A. W. Lever who asked firstly, whether a different oviposition site was selected in Fiji from Java and secondly,

8

whether the Ichneumon C‘retnastus, introduced 30 years ago from Java, had become established in Fiji. The value of general collecting in the study of an economic pest causing immature nutfall of coconuts was proved in the British Solomon Islands. It was as a result of finding the Coreid Amblypelta cocophaga China on a euphorbiaceous jungle plant (Macurungu) that led to the discovery of a second species (A. gallegonis Lever) on cassava in the same natural order. As this occurs as a crop in most native gardens, it later became a convenient indicator for the presence or absence of the bug in tall coconut palms.

Arnblypelta also shows discontinuous distribution with the economic A . cocophaga, present on all but two of the main islands in the centre and west of the Solomons and on these two (Ysabel and Choiseul) its place is taken by A. gallegonis. Besides this inter-insular variation, there is a very patchy distribution both on any island and numerically throughout a plantation. The average figure of less than one nymph per palm had led to a common Pentatomid (Aziagastus) being blamed as the nutfall vector. The presence or absence of certain predaceous ants also enters into the association but time did not permit of more than a reference.

In reply, Mr. Paine said that he thought it unlikely that dik’ierent oviposition sites were in fact selected and that he had not found any eggs laid on bracts. With regard to the Ichneumon, many had been introduced but none had been recovered from Scab Moth in Fiji.

The meeting concluded with two short films, kindly made available by Mr. K. Watkins, one on paper making by wasps and the other recording the activities in a hornets’ nest.

PAUL FREEMAN,

Honorary Secretary.

ADDITIONS TO THE LIBRARY Presented

Avidov, Z. Pests of the cultivated plants of Israel. 8vo. Jerusalem : Magnes Press,

Wallis, J. B. The Cicindelidae of Canada. 8vo. University of Toronto Press, 1961. 1961. [The Publishers.]

Purchased Bonnet, P. Bibliographia Araneorum. Vol. 3. 8vo. Toulouse, 1961. International Code for Zoological Nomenclature, 1958. 8vo. London : International

In addition separates have been presented by Miss A. Lsken ; Dr. C. B. Williams ; Mr. A. M. Jordan; Department of Entomology, University of Manitoba; Smith- sonian Institute, Washington ; Mr. J. s. Taylor ; Dr. D. J. Lewis ; Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology, Macdonald College, Quebec ; Plant Pathology Laboratory, Harpenden ; Carnegie Museum, Pittsburg ; Academy of Sciences, U.S.S.R.; Mr. R. H. Carcasson ; Miss D. J. Jackson ; Professor R. E. Lewis ; American Entom- ological Society ; Professor 0. W. Richards ; Professor J. Lane ; London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine ; Mr. E. S. A. Baynes ; Dr. I. Harpaz ; Norsk Entom- ologisk Forening, Oslo ; and Mr. A. W. R. Macrae.

Trust for Zoological Nomenclature, 1961.

I’RINTED B Y ADLARD A X D SON, LTMITED, BARTHOLOMEW PRESS, DORKINC.